Dotfuscator Gets Better (and still FREE) in Visual Studio 2010

This week I’ve been learning about a free tool included with Visual Studio 2010 called Dotfuscator Software Services by PreEmptive Solutions. If you’re using the version included with Visual Studio 2008 then you are already familiar with it’s code obfuscation technology. You get a lot more with Visual Studio 2010. They’ve added a whole new class of features and services based on code injection like tamper defense and notification as well as performance and usage monitoring. If you’ve ever wanted to instrument your application to see how users really use your apps so you can improve them, this may be the solution for you.

I’ve been working with some folks to provide you with some How Do I videos on how to get up and running quickly. The videos will be released on the usual Dev Center locations so stay tuned.

Of what I’ve learned so far it’s super simple to set up your application in Visual Studio 2010 and compile it with these features. The application then communicates with a free cloud service called the Runtime Intelligence Services Portal that lets you analyze the data from your running applications. But what if you don’t want to use PreEmptive’s free cloud service and would rather host your own endpoint and collect your own data? You’re in luck because today PreEmptive announced an open source starter kit for creating and hosting your own endpoint. Check it out on CodePlex: http://riendpointkit.codeplex.com/ .

What’s the rub, how do these guys make money if it’s all free? The free version included in Visual Studio 2010 has some great features but the Pro versions have even more, of course! Take a look at the feature comparison here.